Problem, Problem, Problem?

It's not the damping oil. That's just the Prep-M lubricating grease. It might have been overpacked at the factory or at the shop and/or the seals may not be up to snuff. If it was damping oil from a blown bottom seal you would have hydraulic lockout (i.e. limited travel). My buddy has the same fork on his Giant Rainier and it did the same thing. His works just fine though. So if it seems to be working okay, it's probably fine. You should be able to wipe it off and keep going.

Homebrew said:

It's not the damping oil. That's just the Prep-M lubricating grease. It might have been overpacked at the factory or at the shop and/or the seals may not be up to snuff. If it was damping oil from a blown bottom seal you would have hydraulic lockout (i.e. limited travel). My buddy has the same fork on his Giant Rainier and it did the same thing. His works just fine though. So if it seems to be working okay, it's probably fine. You should be able to wipe it off and keep going.

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What you described about the bottom seal seems acurate. there is a lot of oil accumulating and leaking in and out the bottom. so far there is no noticeable changes in preformence.

so i should just keep riding and wipeing until the oil needs to be changed and or it runs out?
will this not cause rapid oil loss?

Check the pics in this thread...

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=35301

Is this the same problem? If yes, then you are fine. That's just the Prep-M lube. No need to change it, you can just pump some more in when it gets sticky. All the damping oil is sealed up inside the stanchions under the right side top cap. _Manitou's TPC and Fluid Flow damping are low pressure systems so there are rarely problems with it.

It is quite similar to the pics but there is much more of it and its a different colour -not as brownish-. its a very very fine liquid. i'm sure it's the damping oil which is what i am worried about; that the damping oil is leaking out the bottom and through the top. what now?

Mack said:

It is quite similar to the pics but there is much more of it and its a different colour -not as brownish-. its a very very fine liquid. i'm sure it's the damping oil which is what i am worried about; that the damping oil is leaking out the bottom and through the top. what now?

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You can do a quick check of the damping oil level to be sure. Remove the right side top cap and measure the oil height from the crown. Oil height specs are listed in the manual (available online at the "tech support" link on answerproducts.com). If it's low, you'll have to drop the legs, check the lower damping chamber seal and refill with fresh 5 wt oil. I've never seen it just leaking some oil. If there is a leak in the lower damping chamber seal, it dumps all the oil into the legs and locks the fork out.

Homebrew said:

You can do a quick check of the damping oil level to be sure. Remove the right side top cap and measure the oil height from the crown. Oil height specs are listed in the manual (available online at the "tech support" link on answerproducts.com). If it's low, you'll have to drop the legs, check the lower damping chamber seal and refill with fresh 5 wt oil. I've never seen it just leaking some oil. If there is a leak in the lower damping chamber seal, it dumps all the oil into the legs and locks the fork out.

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it has already locked out the fork due to a bust seal and i wasnt pleased at all . i am wondering if when i brought it in to lbs that they installed the cap wrong? i will check the oil level and let you know.

thanks for everything so far.

Above the crown??

'cause I have an Axel and it "leaked" oil from the cap atop the right leg (from riding position, that's how manitou indicates right-left on their manuals). No drops were visible but there was oil all over the right leg and even the tire.

Asked Manitou about it and they told me to tighten up the cap. It disappeared alone. Never did it again. I guess this was associated with hot weather somehow. Check the o-ring below the cap for dings or rips and the threads of the cap.

Left leg (from riding position again) has the spring stack. If there's some oil coming out of there, don't worry, it's just some grease resuiduals from the spring stack. Just in case check this cap to be tight. Just a bit more than hand-tight. Plastic caps do not like to be tightened so much.

No its not the cap on the very top of the leg (where oil is poured in) i bleieve it is the cap on the the damping rod. the cap on the top fine there is no problems there and i keep wondering if it is the damping rod cap.

reply to Homebrew

I went to check the oil level, did everything the manual asked and there is none or at least very minimal oil. Now i am not a shock doc but i do believe i can clearly state that there is quite a significant problem here. dispite no preformence changes (at least no major preformence changes in my opinion. I could be wrong because, as you can probably tell i haven't had this many caliber forks that require this much attention / tlc).
So i think i will have to buy more. i suppose it's just a spring in a tube now.